Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Mythbusters: Hair Care

It's easy to concoct hair myths since most people are pretty attached to their mane and would happily believe anything.And once a hair rumour starts its pretty difficult to contain it until it's wrecked the brains of some very sensible people.

Listed below are five of the oldest and most common hair myths along with the actual facts.

Myth #1
“Switching shampoos makes hair healthier”Busted
I've heard this advice advocated by almost everyone I know and I did blindly believe it for a long time, until it stopped making sense.Hair is pretty dumb and dead so how can it tell the difference between different brands or build up tolerance to any product for that matter?I've been using the Schwarzkopf Repair Rescue Range(shampoo, conditioner, hair mask: the whole deal) for almost a year now religiously without any so called product build up.The range is exclusively meant for rebonded hair and so far it's been taking good care of my hair.Definitely if you have oily or very fine hair and prefer using heavy duty styling products like pomade, mousse, or gel, the extra goop tends to accumulate on your hair in which case a clarifying shampoo might prove beneficial once every two weeks.Though use clarifying shampoos with caution since, these detergent-heavy cleansers, which do such a great job of removing build up, will also do a great job of giving you damaged hair.

Myth #2“ You can mend split ends with the right products”Busted
Nope you can't just like you can't mend a broken heart.Once they are split you can do absolutely nothing to fix it.The best thing to do would be to cut them off immediately or they will split higher and do more damage.You could though try making split ends less noticeable by applying a product containing silicone or beeswax, which will temporarily seal ends together, making hair softer and more manageable.To prevent split ends avoid brushing wet hair or using hot styling tools frequently.Protect your hair from sun damage and and get a trim once every two months.

Myth #3
“ Cutting Hair Makes It Grow Faster and/or Thicker”Busted
This ludicrous advice has been passed on for ages and it amazes me how many people actually believe it.Hair grows from the scalp so how can chopping them off from the bottom help you grow hair faster?Sure this might have had some credibility if you had grass instead of hair but since you don't I highly doubt a hair cut will make much difference to your hair length or thickness.Cutting your hair will only make it shorter and hairs grows almost exactly half an inch per month, no matter what you do, and will not alter it's normal biologically determined growth rate or overall texture.

Myth #4
“If you pluck out one gray hair, two or three will sprout in its place”Busted
If that were true everyone would be plucking hair to get bountiful hair, since you can always cover up the gray as long as you have a full mane.Gray hair simply means absence of colour, so pulling out a gray hair will not influence another gray one to grow.Although plucking out those gray strands is a bad habit since you can damage the roots, causing infection or leaving a scar.

Myth #5“To get really clean hair, you must "lather, rinse, and repeat”Busted
The labels on almost all shampoos read lather rinse repeat, so you do exactly that not realizing that it's simply a marketing strategy to get one to use more of the product, run out of it quicker and then have to purchase more.One thorough washing will do the trick as long as you spend an extra couple minutes washing your hair properly.While shampooing, massage the shampoo into your scalp and throughout your hair to get a nice lather and then rinse to get all the suds out of your hair.Follow up with conditioner.A second lather might be necessary if you have extremely dirty hair but since most of us shampoo regularly and frequently I highly doubt that situation will ever arise.

So that's 5 most common hair myths busted for you.If you have any hair care bubble to burst feel free to comment and let me know.

7 comments

Informative article. But I disagree with Myth#1. The hair cannot tell, but the long time deposits do affect. I myself went through this. but its good that the Shwarzkopf one worked for you. HG shapoos are really difficult to come by

Hahaa was so fun to read!! nothing to add but would def love to read more of such posts! :) :)PS: on a totally unrelated note, I went online to buy stuff from monave but the shipping s so steep ke the wonderfully priced products are just inaccessible! :((

@Nivedita:I too was a staunch believer in the change shampoo frequently myth but if you have a good enough shampoo then there shouldn't be any built up in the first place, hence rendering changing shampoos useless. @Keerthi:Would love to post more of such articles.BTW there are other articles in the series, check the guides tab.Too bad the shipping is steep at Monave, but their products are really great.Will see if I can do something about it.

sonia... i lovd your article...honestly...There are two points i'd like to mention...Products do cause build ups, like silicones, and alternating them with a SLS or any other bsurfactanct based shampoo would really be helpful to clear the build up. Read my guest post on ETm to know why i am saying so : http://www.everything-thatmatters.com/2012/12/silicones-in-your-hair-product-is-it.html

And split ends if at the starting phase can be repaired, by products containing pantethol, like pantene.

@Rashmi:Great article!I agree that using a clarifying shampoo once in a while does help get rid of product buildup. Haven't tried the Pantene shampoo.Will do and get back to you.@Dolly:My exact thoughts :)